Angkor Wat & End Times

The end of time has fascinated man throughout history. Different cultures have gone to great lengths to search for answers or clues about the future. As a study of recorded moments, the story of the past is a collection of the moments we deemed important enough to record. As a human conception, history is a product of a flawed mind, subject to the same plot arcs as we see in all stories, while a monumental structures like Angkor Wat manage to withstand the bulk of historical distortion and human manipulation. Angkor Wat in Cambodia was conceived based on ancient ideologies as a tool to help measure the start and end of time. Based on Vedic cosmology and Hindu mythology about the future, while offering a self-transformational path to align with the law of cause and effect, creating a more joyous or harmonious future. These ideas were communicated symbolically through architectural science combined with astrology, numerology and mythology. As an experience, this architectural work affects viewers, whether consciously or subconsciously. Through its material, geometric and artistic harmony with the cosmos, the temple is speaking a language which is recognizable and thus translatable when importance is placed on symbolism and the value of time. Angkor Wat functions as a device to master time, captivate imaginations and shine through history to take its future place in the world.

Now is the joining of many universal forces working symbiotically. The Hindu concept of perfection or Nirvana is the cession of time – a preserved moment, the perfection of no change. Only through the passing of time does decay and progression ensure that things either function efficiently, are modified or become extinct. The human capacity for reflection allows us to ponder many questions about the unknown and unknowable. Change is elemental, but we have yet to understand the true nature of it other than its fleeting impermanence. Our concepts about the future depend on the fixed past and present. Whether it is cyclical, dynastic or progressing psychologically, it is easier to understand time when we perceive it directionally. But we still have many questions about the nature of time. Is it mechanical like a clock? Or is it dimensional? And what are we supposed to do about it? The power to see all time at once might disorient us and push us to lose all reason or cognition. We could become disoriented and misunderstand when now is. Perhaps all time is happening at once, but we can only see it this way because of our flawed mental capacity.

If we look at things in a linear way, and think the more the past and present are known, the more we understand the future, we can predict and feel in control of the world and our senses. But we have no proof. The only thing we can really grasp about the future is the universal law of cause and effect, which Hinduism is based on. We know if we physically do something, in the future, a reaction will occur. Consciousness is the doing or action. According to Manley P. Hall "Consciousness is the master of the future." We understand that movement is required to bring about any event, imposing of will. It is our responsibility or role in the Hindu world to strive to improve through our lifetimes, we have a personal agency to use the moments we understand as time effectively. Hall refers to this as man being custodians of motion. Hindu cosmic narratives are characterized by the central role of the observer based on the repose of perfection while western ideas of greatness are measured by bulk and progressive movement.

Our adaptability in situations through time has been part of our survival. This could lead us astray. We could waste time growing into destructive habits or creating an undesired future. The best guide we have in right action is to look at the consequences of the past and present and make adjustments based on the awarenesses we have. Consulting experience can save time. This is why people study history. "Understanding the truth about ourselves, past and present, and having the courage to delve into the vast recesses of our unconscious to confront our karmic demons will lead to personal awareness and freedom."

Actions are governed by natural forces. Reaction to our efforts more often teaches us about imperfections than perfection, as the statistical probability is far greater. Superimposing means, or alternating the natural order, produces varying futures regardless what may be desired. We must work with continuous universal axioms. The Hindu cyclical concept of time allows for the individual to achieve a better future, if not soon, in the next life. Similar to god as a card dealer who continuously plays a hand, then reshuffles the deck to get a better hand. When the connection between what we want and what is right meet, we will achieve a Hindu image of perfection, a symbiotic state of being. This is the concept of the rapturous union or unity between the universal and the physical. Aiming to enlarge the consciousness, or ones karmic sphere, by learning about and growing with or into ones surroundings. In the Hindu concept the universe is all comprehensive. Isolationist thinking only leads to unhappy degenerative futures, as one will be disconnected from the universal source. Brighter future are achieved by flowing along with the universal forces.

Western ideologies tend to view the world from a perspective of subduing nature, an artificial disassociation with the surrounding world. Conversely, Hinduism promotes the view of harmony--man and nature, individual and universal as one. Nature is directing us along a path to destiny not an impediment in our way. An unbroken relationship with all. "man is not a detached being, he has a universal aspect and when he recognizes this he becomes great." This thinking makes everything have a spiritual significance. The Hindu desire is not progress it is joy. Upanishads teach truths about the permanent in all that is impermanent, and the highest abiding joy unifying all enjoyments. It attempts to remove a feeling of sojourning on earth and allows one live a better life now, instead of in the future. This theory is transcendental evolution based on well established scientific and mathematical principles. It proposes that life has the potential to evolve through the application of set principles.

The ability to distinguish time offers us a tool of predictability. Watching and recording the time scales would be a fundamental development from a culture based on unification with the external world as our relationship with time varies. Time is variable and relative. A comparison is the compacted relationship between a cell's lifetime, to the total span human time, to the universal time body. The process of creation and evolution, both macrocosmic and microcosmic, are identical, differentiated only by scale. this is precisely the Hermetic idea "As above so below, so below as above." Angkor Wat is an artistic scale model of this concept. In the late Vedic and Puranic stories, and in the Mahabharata and the Yoga Vasishtha, observers encountered that space and time need not flow at the same rate.

For Hindus, time is like a metaphysical river that flows endlessly absorbing everything around. In theory, we can augment our vibration to synchronize with time so that time appears to stand still. Death is a gateway to the next life, when one overcomes time or achieves a timeless state, one becomes immortal.

Knowing the exact date when the point of the vernal equinox and the sidereal zodiac meet is knowing creation, the date of the universal birth. This knowledge would answer the great mystery of life. Perhaps the Hindu temple monks conceived and used Angkor Wat to map the changes in the cosmos to help calculate this sacred date. In the Hindu creation myth, time is a manifestation of God. Life starts when God activates his energies and ends when he withdraws them into repose. God is timeless, as relative time doesn't to exist in the infinite. The past, present and future coexist simultaneously.

These Vedic Astrologers observed the passing of time based on 18 astronomical alignments within the structure of Angkor Wat. The surrounding temples in the region were placed at specific points due to their relationship with the solar system. They used a lunar and a solar calendar. In Vedic Astrology the sun's movements are marked against the backdrop of constellations versus the western idea of mapping against the sun. Birth charts were mapped using the moon sign as the predominant aspect versus Western culture using the sun sign as the dominant personality trait. Early Vedic astrology was more like a time marker, commemorating special events in ones life and dates to perform rituals. It later evolved to include forecasting at birth, to learn how best to balance the polar forces in ones life. Almost a smaller scale version of balancing the axis of the earth. During the period of Angkor Wat’s construction it was popular neighbouring Vedic cultures to use predictions for many life events such as planting crops, the outcome of wars, favorable marriage or conception times.

Angkor Wat's has a version of the churning of the milky ocean mythology about the delicate balance of time. It is complete with asuras (demons) and devas (angels) in a tug of war with a massive serpent, choking the sacred mountain balanced on a swimming turtle. As they pull back and forth, rotating the mountain, they churn the milky ocean below. Vishnu stands on the axis of the mountain, while the god of heaven, leader of the Devas and commander of the elements, the rain and thunder god Indra, is in the sky. The story is depicted through the temple design and its alignment. In 10,500 BC Angkor Wat and a number of surrounding temples aligned to the constellation Draco, which is the celestial depiction of the great serpent wrapped around the mountain.

When the Rig Vedas, the Hindu Sanskrit spiritual texts of approx. 5000 BC, were thought to be conceived the Pole Star was Draconis, it has now shifted to the North Star. The point at which the Sun returns to each year has changed since the beginning of time. This is how the Vedic astrologers knew the world was round. The Rig Veda speaks of circumpolar heavenly bodies, the stars revolving around the pole, completing a 24 hour revolution, heaven as a wheel supported on an axis and the polar dawn as “many were the days between the first beam of light and sunrise”.

Angkor Wat's murals depict the greater cosmic cycles through which our earth progresses. They encode precise mathematics and ratios regarding the earth's precession through the constellations, known as the precession of the equinoxes. Approximately every 2,150 years the sun on the spring equinox rises in a different constellation. To cycle through the constellations takes approximately 26,000 years. The spring equinox is the point of rotation, Angkor Wat was placed in its precise location to meet the sun each year at this time and measure the movements. It has many ways of calculating these, but ultimately the goal is to map them out so we can know the date of the birth of the universe. With that Vedic Astrologers can measure when the Yugas or the four Hindu ages began, and thus know when the end of time will take place.

The Rig Vedas offer insight into the divine cycle of time as a kalpa. It is approximated that a kalpa is 4,320,000,000 years or 10,000 divine years, which is divided into four epochs or yugas. These periods follow the rise and descent of man and last 1,728,000 years, 1,296,000 years, 864,000 years and 432,000 years respectively. Angkor Wat`s causeway has axial lengths that approximate extremely closely to 1,728 hat, 1,296 hat, 864 hat and 432 hat – the yuga lengths scaled down by 1000. The temple dimensions are based on the hat or "Cambodian cubit" measurement unit. In the Hindu scriptures, it is said that all mortal beings pass through each of the four great epochs and every cycle of creation and destruction.

The final age is called the Kali Yuga. It is the degenerative stage, or decline of life, ruled by the demon Kali. It is predicted that at the end of the Kali Yuga, Lord Shiva will destroy the universe. A great physical transformation will occur. Lord Brahma will then recreate the universe and the cycle starts again.

The incarnations of Vishnu, the temple deity of Angkor Wat, are said to coincide with the important events of the universe. He is ascribed ten avatars, nine of which have passed. The Kali Yuga ends when Vishnu’s Kalki avatar comes to earth, gathers an army of the righteous and defeats wickedness, initiating a new age. Lord Krishna, predicted that this Golden Age will start 5,000 years after the beginning of the Kali Yuga, and will last for 10,000 years. According to Hindu cosmology, life in the universe is created and destroyed once every 4.1 to 8.2 billion years, which is one full day (day and night) for Brahma. Yet Vishnu can stop the destruction. The Vishnu Puran states that as long as Bhagwan Shri Krishna touches earth with his Lotus Feet, Kali Yug could not put its foot on the earth.

As custodians of time, the builders of Angkor Wat united to create this monument with record swiftness, which stands now steadfast as a tribute to Vishnu and the future home of his tenth avatar, taking its place in past and future, mastering time through transcendental evolution. Measuring the celestial movements of Vishnu’s creations offers the Khmer people and the temple monks of Angkor Wat the ability to decipher his prophecies and prepare for the final coming. It communicates the highest ideas put forth by Hindu and Vedic scholars as a clear conception of the astronomical frame of the universe, ascribing personal responsibility to individuals to flow with the milky river of time and balance one’s inner polarity. Angkor Wat is a smaller-scale representation of the the universal forces living harmoniously in the now.

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